Which Dog Is Dominant?

[Kaz]

I've got two dogs and two foster bitches at the moment and the pack is beautifully structured . The dogs just naturally fell into place according to size ranging from great dane down to staffyx.

I'm pack leader and OH is the pack mascot. They all love him very much but won't do anything he says.

If mounting ever happens, it get stops quickly enough with a loud 'Oi!'

[jesomil]

You're expecting a pack animal not to show dominance tendancies to each other?

A dog doesn't have to hump or be aggressive to 'try it on'.

I am sure my dogs do lots of little subtle things but in my pack i dont allow aggression, standing over, humping or anything else that i deem as innapropriate.

I will sort it out if there is a problem and will stop any hostile behaviour (not that there ever is any).

Some people let their dogs sort it out but i think in some circumstances that can get out of hand.

[Eldoop]

Hi Bel sorry if it was said in the posts but I didn't read them all, but is Ed and Molly desexed or are you going to breed them?

we had this same problem with Minx and my nieces lab Dacoda, dacoda would mount Monx and we were told it was her being dominant over Minx and that 'we' are the top dog not them, so Dacoda would get time out every time she did it and only Dacoda, now she hasn't done it in along time, hope th is helps

[shoemonster]

Molly is desexed, Eddie isn't as he gets shown

Molly goes through stages of doing it to him, silly girl

And she seems to only do it when they are near us

[Teebs]

i would remove Molly from on top of Ed if he was getting grumpy with it.

Thats the thing though, Ed just lets her do it, with no reaction whatsoever, sometimes he will walk off with her still trying to hold onto him, and he never reacts to it, it's very weird!

Only very very occasionally if she sits there niggling and niggling at him (chewing on his legs, etc, which she will often do with no reaction from him, he just lies there) for ages he will do a warning growl, and she backs off for a sec, but we've normally distracted her by then anyway

It's good to see others alternate with theirs, I had always thought that there must be "meant to be" a top dog, but good to see this is the case, as I didn't want to get it wrong and treat one as top and cause issues

She is so my dog.

KAos will hump Atlas from time to time, she steals his leg and tries to run of with it, he just takes it, waits for her to finish and walks off, sometimes he will growl, and she backs off right away!

I tend to think At is the top dog, kaos is scared of him, he gives her the look, and she bolts away, yet she plays, and annoys him ALL day, and he just takes it?

She wont go near him when he is eating.

When we are out he takes anything as it comes to him, she will try to eat any dog that walks past.

I really dont know who my top dog is?

At gets fed first, because he will push her out of the way if i feed her, but other then that, i do everything else by whatever dog is closest to me at the time!

[shoemonster]

but other then that, i do everything else by whatever dog is closest to me at the time!

Yeah I do that abit too! lol

[Teebs]

This is what Kaos is like most of the time with At (including the stealing the leg thing!) but the second he gives her a growl she backs off.

Idiot dogs

[shoemonster]

Yep, exactly like my 2!

[JAG]

After me in my pack I have an alpha dog. He is the oldest and was my first. Then there is the Beta dog. A would be Alpha if he could be, then the rest of the omega pack boys and girls. If you were to visit you would not know that my old boy was the Alpha. He is very unassuming, goes about his business without upsetting anyone else, he has respect from everyone who pretty much leave him alone. He does get vocal over the buscuit bowl in the evenings. He is first. The beta dog is a sneaky operator. He sits back and waits for his opportunity to upset everyone. He constantly changes the house rules so the rest of the pack don't know how to behave around him. He will attack other members for no reason, usually when they are not looking. It is neither food or toy motivated. He challenges the alpha dog for alpha rights and usually ends up on top as he is the bigger and stronger of the two but his stay at the top is very short lived and he is usually back to beta in no time flat.

I guess things are not always as they seem. If another person saw this behaviour they would think the beta dog is the top dog in my house. Wrong! He just likes to think he is.

[shoemonster]

I think that about Molly, she isn't alpha, she just wants to be, and tries to act it, and Ed is the calm laid back one who is really the alpha

He lets her chew on him, cos I know that he is bigger and stronger than her, and if he didn't want her doing it he would have no troubles getting her to stop

[laffi]

So what is the verdict? Humping allowed or banned ?

[Teebs]

I let mine hump. Kaos doesnt do any damage to Atlas, and he tells her off when sick of it, If At does it to her i keep an eye on him, as he is so much bigger then her, dont want her to get hurt

[he'smyhero]

Hero humps Lola occasionally (funnily he only started after he got desexed!!) it ends up turning into a bit of a game she let him sometimes or give a little growl and he starts jumping around and they'll box each other (all in fun no growling or anything). She's never done it to him although she does lean over his head and shove her rude bits in his face I don't know if its the same thing or not.

I also agree with there not being a definate dominate one between our dogs- it depends on the situation. They swap food bowls and Lola will even occasionally stand back so Hero can eat but other times will get a bit growly if he trys to take over her food. But Hero's more toy oriantated and possessive so she will usually let him have it and just lay down and watch him but if she wants to sit on the lounge where he is she just climbs on top of him and sits down.

We try to treat them as equally as possible and if there if a dispute we'll let them sort it out between themselves- of course if it starts getting serious we step in. We tried the whole "Lola gets everything first because she's the bitch so she's dominate" but alot of times she isn't as interested in the bone or what ever as Hero so he gets it.